Geometry in Spanish Cubism

Emily Burrell, Math, Piedmont IB Middle School

Curriculum Unit (pdf)

Synopsis:

This curriculum unit will be a cross-curricular and cultural experience for students. Integrating language arts (with a fellow CTI Fellow), art, Spanish history, Civilizations and Societies, current events, psychology, and mathematics. Our unit will have a main focus on Picasso’s cubist works, Guernica, 1937 to the Three Musicians, 1921 and many more of his famous works. We will also learn about other Spanish cubist artists such as Salvador Dalí, Diego Rivera, and Frida Kahlo. By analyzing the geometric shapes in these artist’s works, we can learn about geometry in a global context. By examining the geometrical shapes: triangles, squares, rectangles, hexagons, cubes, and triangular prisms, we can incorporate the work of Spanish artists. Students will create their own cubist works of art, utilizing a global context (war, current protesting, world hunger, social injustices, etc.), using Guernica as an example to show how a societal issue can be expressed in art (self-expression, art as protest, propaganda). [Current CTI Fellow, Molly Malone, and myself, will be working together to make a cross-curricular IB unit. This unit will focus on our schools’ culture meal week when students bring dishes from their own culture while learning about others including Spain and South and Central America.